Lab picking up problem

[silver pigeon69]

Hi,

I have a 4yr old bitch, who has just started to drop the pheasant about 5m away from me and then starts to "pluck the breast feathers" as such and ignores the recall whistle.It appears as if she is spitting out the fine feathers?? This happened last saturday and when someone else, with a dog, went up to her to get the pheasant from her, she picked it up and brought it straight to me. This happened about three times on saturday. This has never happened before and she has been very good at bringing back birds in the past. Help pls!

 

Thanks,

[Daveo26]

Hmmmmmmm.

Odd!

I can only imagine something has triggered this behaviour.

Has anything changed?

What has made her reluctant to give you her prize?

Have you got A new dog ?

Have you ####ed her for running in and coming back with a bird?

Has she ever eaten a bird to your knowledge?

Is she hungry?

Without seeing/knowing your dog it's difficult to say.

What does she do with a dummy?

[silver pigeon69]

Hmmmmmmm.

Odd!

I can only imagine something has triggered this behaviour.

Has anything changed? Not that i'm aware of ( shooting wise, she now does 90% picking up as opposed to last season 90% beating/10% picking up.)

What has made her reluctant to give you her prize? I dont know

Have you got A new dog ? No (New 5 month baby)

Have you ####ed her for running in and coming back with a bird? No, try not to reprimand her "after" the offence as opposed to during it

Has she ever eaten a bird to your knowledge? No

Is she hungry? She didn't finish her breakfast before we left for the shoot, only ate about half. So this may be a reason.

Without seeing/knowing your dog it's difficult to say. Understand that,thanks for trying to narrow it down with the questions.

What does she do with a dummy? She did go through a period where she would drop the dummy a few feet from me, but i thought i had cured that by turning my back on her?

 

Thanks Dave,

Any tips or training excersises you can advise/ recommend?

[Saltings]

On a retrieve try running as fast as you can away from your dog with dummy or game retrieve sounds like your dog has learned to wind you up so as to distract and confuse so the dog is too buisy woundering what you are doing to get up to no good and a good retrieve with loads of praise and a bad retrieve back on the lead walking to heel the dog will soon cotton on don't forget they have a lot of sleeps since last season a month of basic training refresher does not go a miss

[silver pigeon69]

On a retrieve try running as fast as you can away from your dog with dummy or game retrieve sounds like your dog has learned to wind you up so as to distract and confuse so the dog is too buisy woundering what you are doing to get up to no good and a good retrieve with loads of praise and a bad retrieve back on the lead walking to heel the dog will soon cotton on don't forget they have a lot of sleeps since last season a month of basic training refresher does not go a miss

Thanks, will give that a go. I always continue refreshing her training through the "off" season and she was fine the previous four picking up sessions?

Edited December 5, 2016 by silver pigeon69

[bigbird]

Have you checked her mouth / teeth?

[silver pigeon69]

Have you checked her mouth / teeth?

No, what should i be checking for?

[bigbird]

Loose teeth, lumps bumps, swollen red gums, anything out of the ordinary

[greenshank1]

Has she recently come out of season ? I read that can explain similar behaviour, sometimes if they are lacking some nutrients after a season.

Were the birds hard hit ?

Could be frustration , pent up energy with doing less beating. Are they the first few retrieves of the day ?

[WGD]

Has she recently come out of season ? I read that can explain similar behaviour, sometimes if they are lacking some nutrients after a season.

Were the birds hard hit ?

Could be frustration , pent up energy with doing less beating. Are they the first few retrieves of the day ?

 

Or is she coming in to season? Some of them are just loopy before and after.

[UKPoacher]

I'm looking at the change of primary role being the difference. When a dog is beating and occasionally picking up its prime motivation is to get back to the beating line as that is where all the fun is. When a dog is primarily picking up it is a different ball game and if the dog has possessive tendencies it can lead to the dog refusing to hand over its prize. You have to train a dog differently when using it for picking up. You can't just assume that it will bring game back.

 

I had a similar problem with my ESS when hide shooting. If we were beating she couldn't get the dropped birds back to me quickly enough so she could get back in the thick of it. However, when shooting from a hide she would be reluctant to bring the first pigeon back to me. I figured that the reason was that I had the habit of putting the first few shot birds out in the pattern. So effectively I was taking her pigeon and putting it back in the field. I solved the problem by letting her keep the first one at the side of where she lay and then she would bring every one back to me even if I put them out in the pattern.

 

I would work on some retrieve training if you intend to use the dog primarily for picking up.

[silver pigeon69]

Loose teeth, lumps bumps, swollen red gums, anything out of the ordinary

Had a look and cant see anything, although she did have a week old cut on her ear.

 

Has she recently come out of season ? I read that can explain similar behaviour, sometimes if they are lacking some nutrients after a season.

Were the birds hard hit ?

Could be frustration , pent up energy with doing less beating. Are they the first few retrieves of the day ?

She is due soon!

 

 

Or is she coming in to season? Some of them are just loopy before and after.

She is due soon!

 

I'm looking at the change of primary role being the difference. When a dog is beating and occasionally picking up its prime motivation is to get back to the beating line as that is where all the fun is. When a dog is primarily picking up it is a different ball game and if the dog has possessive tendencies it can lead to the dog refusing to hand over its prize. You have to train a dog differently when using it for picking up. You can't just assume that it will bring game back.

 

I had a similar problem with my ESS when hide shooting. If we were beating she couldn't get the dropped birds back to me quickly enough so she could get back in the thick of it. However, when shooting from a hide she would be reluctant to bring the first pigeon back to me. I figured that the reason was that I had the habit of putting the first few shot birds out in the pattern. So effectively I was taking her pigeon and putting it back in the field. I solved the problem by letting her keep the first one at the side of where she lay and then she would bring every one back to me even if I put them out in the pattern.

 

I would work on some retrieve training if you intend to use the dog primarily for picking up.

She did seem to do it more on the first bird of the drive and less so when they was one, already at my feet. When i sent her out for one of two that needed picking, she messed around a little on the first, but once that was given to me, i sent her straight off for the second, which she picked and brought back perfectly!

 

 

Thanks everyone for your input. i will spend some time on retrieve training and see how that goes next weekend.

[Saltings]

is your dog in kennels or in the house and how is the retrieving going

Edited December 21, 2016 by Saltings

[silver pigeon69]

Hi Saltings,

 

Sorry I havent got bck to you. The dog "lives" in a kennel, BUT is often inside the house as a pet. ( i know this is not ideal, but try telling my 4 yr old!!!) The retrieving is much better, she is bringing the dummy back much better, when i turn and walk away from her. She still "messed" around a little with a pheasant, but only the first one. So she is much better. I will continue with the basic training and retrieving.

Thanks again for your help.

 

Neil